“Sustaining the food supply chain is a priority in Kansas.”
Those were just some of the remarks made by Kansas Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Beam during Governor Laura Kelly’s daily press briefing Monday. Beam addressed the recent national media coverage regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on the workforce in the food processing industry in Kansas, specifically the meat processing sector.
According to Beam, a large number of processing plants in southwest Kansas are responsible for processing roughly 25 percent of the nation’s supply of beef. Beam says continued increases in positive cases at state plants can, in turn, lead to a decrease of workforce and production.
Beam says plants across the state have recently begun adopting significant changes including increased sanitation efforts and health screenings for employees.
The governor’s press conference followed the announcement earlier Monday that a cluster of positive cases had been identified in the Emporia Tyson Plant. Questions have arisen regarding the safety of consuming food from plants where positive cases have been identified.
Beam assures Kansas residents that any positive cases within plants would pose an issue to the food supply chain, but would have no effect on food safety.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman also reported Monday that KDHE is currently tracking 39 COVID-19 clusters in the state with 16 in the private business sector. Three of these clusters have been identified in Emporia so far.
Governor Kelly’s daily press conferences are scheduled to continue Tuesday at 2 pm. You can listen to the briefing in its entirety on KVOE 1400 am, 96.9 fm and KVOE.com.
